Good evening to all of you out there. I would like to share a news article on TRUANCY. It is mainly about truancy among young individuals which is primary school pupils. I personally find this article quite disturbing, knowing what our younger brothers and sisters are doing behind our backs. i hope you find this article interesting.

Thursday October 1, 2009
Truancy a problem among pupils
By MAZWIN NIK ANIS

PUTRAJAYA: Truancy tops the list of disciplinary problems among primary school students followed by rude behaviour and the consumption of alcoholic drinks.
The Education Ministry is looking at ways to tackle these problems as the number of errant students have increased.
“Some primary school pupils in Sabah and Sarawak have been found drinking tuak and other locally-made alcoholic drinks and this must be checked immediately,” Deputy Educa-tion Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong told reporters yesterday.
According to the ministry’s records, 0.79% of the primary school pupils were involved in disciplinary problems between January and June this year, compared with 0.78% during the same period last year.
Although the increase was “almost negligible,” it needed to be checked as it involved young individuals who “already know how to skip school, be rude to their teachers and peers and drink alcohol.”
“We believe the pupils are influenced by television programmes or movies. That is where they learn foul language and violent acts,” he said.
Apart from truancy, students were also found to have committed lewd acts and some were even involved in criminal activities such as fighting and causing hurt and injuries to others.
Dr Wee said there were plans to appoint senior discipline teachers and to reduce the student-counsellor ratio to 1:300 from the current 1:500 so that the counsellors would not be over burdened.

posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine